Restaurant - Best method for processing orders 1

[Spidy6123]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for advice with regards to creating a site for a restaurant which wants to have the capability of processing orders directly from their site.

I have already made the decision to do this in PHP... my question is what is the most effective method of delivering the orders to the restaurant?

maybe a computer logged in to the site with a special "recieve orders" account located directly in the restaurant?

simply via email order?

Any help or suggestions is welcome.
Thanks

 

[sleipnir214]

I think having a "view orders" page is likely your best bet. Particularly if it can auto-refresh.

E-mail has no guaranty of delivery. Because of this, if the e-mails for whatever reason don't make it through, the people in the restaurant will likely assume there are no orders placed.



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[Spidy6123]

My thought's exactly..
Thanks for the help..

 

[jpadie]

there are a number of uk sites that do this (lastminute.com for one).

i asked restaurants that i use regularly the question that you have posed.

they told me that they receive faxes from the site. clunky, but there is a higher level of confidence that the restaurant has actually received the order and of course fax machines to give transmission reports. they use an online fax gateway to do the delivery.

to give confidence to the diner, the restaurant either phones or emails the user that (i) they have got the order; and (ii) when the order ie leaving the restau on the bike.

 

[Spidy6123]

Yeah, now that I think about it.. the local pizza places recieve their orders via fax.

I'll have to look into this with more detail

Thanks again!